In
1937 Douglas Newbold, Governor of Kordofan, asked the Sudan Government
to finance a study into the cultures of the Nuba. One year later, Siegfried
Nadel was appointed as Government Anthropologist in the Sudan, to investigate
the Nuba tribes.

Nadel had received his doctoral degree in 1925 from the University of
Vienna in Psychology and Philosophy and had been a post graduate student
of the London School of Economics Department of Anthropology. From 1934-36,
he had worked with the Nupe and other groups in northern Nigeria.

Nadel started his research in the Nuba Mountains in 1938 and the Second
World War broke out before he could write down his findings. From 1942-1945
he served in the British Military Administration in Eritrea and in 1945
he became Secretary for Native Affairs to the British Military Administration
in Tripolitania.

Finally, in 1947, he was able to publish his book: The Nuba: an Anthropological
Study of the Hill Tribes in Kordofan. It is a wonderfully detailed
study that has recorded for history the complexity and variety of the
Nuba cultures as they existed in those days. The following images are
copied from the book.

Age-grade dance in Otoro

Planting in Heiban

Hoeing in Heiban

Terraced cultivation in Otoro (Chungur)

Weeding in Otoro

Stacking grain in Heiban

Threshing in Otoro

Angreb-maker in Otoro (Chungur)

Pottery 'factory' in Tira

Otoro hunters setting out on an expedition

Nyima hills

Dilling

Watering cattle in Korongo

Spearing of bulls in Korongo funeral feast

Arab road shops inKorongo

Urila hill in Otoro; on the right cairn-shaped
shrine of seasonal fertility rites